Best kitefoil destination Jan/Feb near-ish Europe

[Havre]

Not sure if the wind is much higher, but either way - I don't like to travel outside of Norway/Northern Europe in the few months life is livable up here

[leeuwen]

Week 3 is coming to an end, another Zanzibar update:
Last week had nice winds, even often suitable for twintips on 12m and smaller.
Been out on my 8m and 6m a couple of times.
Looks like there is a big storm around Madagaskar that is pulling in some winds.
I foiled now 17 days out of max of 20, of which about 15 proper sessions with good wind (10kn+) and the next week also looks promising.

* Be really careful when leaving your stuff on the beach especially at the end of the day when it can get a bit more crowded.
Anything that is easy to pickup has a high chance of being stolen if unattended.
I heard from people who lost their board/rolled up bar/harness.

* I have been to the “reef” a couple of times now. Water is easily deep enough at high tide to foil there. Nothing special in regards to wave height and the water is quite turbulent in front of the reef making the foil feel quite unstable. I haven’t really got the skills to go into the breaking waves but it’s nice to ride some swell in front of the reef (swell is about 50cm high).
Main drawback is it’s quite a swim back (1.5-2km) if something does go wrong. For this reason I am not pushing my skills/luck there.

* When the tide gets really high (currently peaking at almost +2m) there isn’t any beach left at some kite schools/spots. If you are going to use a kiteschool/storage consider going to one with a higher beach line if you happen to have the more extreme tides when you are here.

* There is some free floating seaweed/plants here and there that can be quite annoying especially in marginal conditions. It usually slows down the foil a bit, no immediate crashes most of the time. If you can jump with the foil it is easy to clear it with a pop out of the water, sometimes just raising the mast a bit is already enough.

* Just something that might be super obvious but maybe not for everyone: there is some, by western standards, extreme poverty here. Often starting just one street behind the beach. I have seen a lot worse on this continent but if you have only seen some nice resort pictures and the blue water you might have forgotten…

Although I am mostly listing some negatives/attention points I am quite enjoying myself here. It’s not the 100% ideal spot but IMHO it’s pretty nice if you go here with the right expectations.